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Reassessing women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities in the nineteenth century: A review of the literature

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  • Sonia Baijot
  • Charlotte Le Chapelain

Abstract

This article reviews recent literature on women entrepreneurship in the nineteenth century. We first examine the reasons why female entrepreneurship in the process of industrialization has so long remained ignored or considered at best a very marginal phenomenon. Second, this paper reviews the methods used in the recent revisionist literature in order to identify women entrepreneurs in the historical records and to assess the importance of their participation in entrepreneurial activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonia Baijot & Charlotte Le Chapelain, 2022. "Reassessing women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities in the nineteenth century: A review of the literature," Working Papers of BETA 2022-24, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-24
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    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2022/2022-24.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barker, Hannah, 2006. "The Business of Women: Female Enterprise and Urban Development in Northern England 1760-1830," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199299713.
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    4. Jennifer Aston & Paolo Martino, 2017. "Risk, success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(3), pages 837-858, August.
    5. A. Owens, 2002. "Inheritance and the Life-Cycle of Family Firms in the Early Industrial Revolution," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 21-46.
    6. Mark Freeman & Robin Pearson & James Taylor, 2006. "'A doe in the city': Women shareholders in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 265-291.
    7. Khan, B. Zorina, 2016. "Invisible Women: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Family Firms in Nineteenth-Century France," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(1), pages 163-195, March.
    8. Josephine Maltby & Janette Rutterford, 2006. "'She possessed her own fortune': Women investors from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 220-253.
    9. Hannah Barker & Mina Ishizu, 2012. "Inheritance and continuity in small family businesses during the early industrial revolution," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 227-244, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women entrepreneurship; industrialization; nineteenth century.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N83 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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